Friends rallied Saturday around a Lee’s Summit eighth-grade girl who had been accidentally shot the night before.

Police had not released the girl’s name late Saturday nor did they update the girl’s condition. Her family members could not be reached for comment.

Several friends at Bernard Campbell Middle School told The Star she had improved after surgery. She had been listed in critical condition. One said she saw the injured girl in the hospital and the girl squeezed her hand when asked.

The teenager was accidentally shot Friday afternoon at a gathering of girlfriends at a house in the 500 block of Northeast Castle Drive. Lee’s Summit police Sgt. Chris Depue said Saturday that she underwent surgery about 7 p.m. Friday.

“There is nothing really sinister at all,” Depue said. “It is just a tragic accident, carelessness.”

The girl was with a friend. In that friend’s home was a “medium-caliber handgun,” Depue said.

Depue said the victim’s friend fired a single shot, possibly not knowing that the gun was loaded. A parent was in the home at the time. Police would not say where the victim, who is thought to be in the eighth grade, was wounded.

Friends told The Star that the victim is a fun-loving, always smiling girl who loves sports, particularly soccer and track.

“We are so worried about her,” said Savannah Pottinger, 14. “She is a great friend and everybody really likes her.”

Said another friend on Twitter: “(The girl) is literally the most funny, beautiful, kind, and lively person you will ever meet, I know in my heart she’ll be okay.”